Numerical investigation of modified cavitation model with thermodynamic effect in water and liquid nitrogen

Abstract

In this paper, three different cavitation models were employed and coupled with thermodynamic effect to simulate the cavitation flow in water and liquid nitrogen. The water cavitating flows around a NACA0015 hydrofoil and liquid nitrogen cavitating flows around a tapered hydrofoil were investigated numerically. The three-dimensional computations were compared and validated with the cavitation experiments. The applicability of the numerical solutions of cavitating regarding to the cavitation model was studied. The change of saturated vapor pressure caused by latent heat of vaporization and the change of local vaporization pressure caused by turbulent kinetic energy were taken into consideration. The numerical result of the modified Merkle cavitation model shows good agreement with the experimental result, indicating that the modified Merkle cavitation model could be employed to simulation the cavitation flows in water and liquid nitrogen. Additionally, corresponding of the thermodynamic effect in water and liquid nitrogen cavitation were discussed.